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Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Soundscape Installation: Bill Fontana's River Sounding

A journey through the hidden sound worlds of the River Thames. "Somerset House was built with its own front door onto the river, The Great Arch, from which the Navy Board's ornate gilded barge would sail upriver to Whitehall. Artist Bill Fontana returned the river to the building with River Sounding, an impressive sound installation that created an acoustic journey through the little known subterranean spaces of Somerset House.

Over several months, Fontana collected hundreds of hours of audio and video from above and below the surface of the Thames, from Richmond to remote locations in the Estuary, to reveal the hidden stories and sound-worlds of the river in a public artwork.

Images and sounds installed in the Lightwells and Dead House - spaces far below the courtyard, usually closed to the public - created an intimate, acoustic journey and reinstated the forgotten shared history of Somerset House and the Thames.

Bill Fontana, one of the world's leading sound artists, has installed public artworks at iconic locations in many of the world's great cities, including London's Millennium Bridge and Big Ben, San Francisco's Golden Gate and Paris's Arc de Triomphe. Source: Somerset House.

1.Bill Fontana - River Sounding. (2:55) (Videoplinius) Camcorder footage of Bill Fontana's 'River Sounding'. Installed in the Lightwells and Dead House of Somerset House, spaces usually closed to the public, it consists of audio and video recorded above and below the surface of the Thames, from Richmond to the Estuary.

2.Somerset House (3:14) (davdivideo2010) A visit to Somerset House for an on-site experience of the River Sounding video installation by Bill Fontant, May, 2010.

3.River Sounding (1:52) (somersethouselondon) Brief introduction to River Sounding installation with sound samples from various river locations. Bill Fontana and John Keifer discuss.

World Forum for Acoustic Ecology

About

This is a directory of Internet videos related to the field of Acoustic Ecology. At the left are the most recent additions. The full list is archived below. All videos are listed by category on the WFAE web site, which is updated once a month.

Acoustic Ecology

"Acoustic ecology, sometimes called soundscape ecology, is the relationship, mediated through sound, between living beings and their environment. Acoustic ecology studies started in the late 1960s with R. Murray Schafer and his team at Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, Canada) as part of the World Soundscape Project."

"The first study produced by the WSP was titled The Vancouver Soundscape. The interest in this area grew enormously after this pioneer and innovative study and the area of acoustic ecology raised the interest of researchers and artists all over the world. In 1993 the members of the by now large and active international acoustic ecology community formed the World Forum For Acoustic Ecology." (Source: WIKIPEDIA )